Adjusted Reality

Tag: week in review Page 3 of 4

In like a lion…

On November 2, 2009

…and hopefully out like one too! I’m feeling more optimistic, more hopeful, and more… ready to take on the week than I have in a while. I’m sure it certainly helped that I got in a FULL workout this morning. I set some other things in motion this weekend that made me feel like less of a waste of space. I exercised a little bit more control than usual. And this morning, I am rewarded. Let’s break it down…

Doctor doctor:

I went in and got the blood work done – and pretty much everything showed up in the normal range! My overall cholesterol is 142, my fasting sugars are in the 90s, everything seems to be rockin’. The only two things that showed up ever so slightly outside were my white blood cell count (slightly low) and the size of my red blood cells (slightly larger). Apparently it was not anything to worry about, as they didn’t call me in to have a follow up, so I can rest assured that I am in good condition and rock and roll with my life.

When We Pretend That We’re Shred(ed):

Currently listening to L7 right now, so I had to go there (if you get it, YAY!). Ok, soooo… I shredded 5 times again last week. And life went on. I did level 1 on Monday and did level 2 the rest of the week. I’m not sure if it was that level 2 is actually EASIER or that going from just regular weight training to level 1 was just so much more of a system shock than level 1 to level 2 (I’m guessing that’s it), but I was just fine this week. The two days of rest started me out fresh, and while I definitely felt it working, I was not cripplingly sore. The lunge/squat and hold seems to not affect my legs as much as the in and out of it motion. The cardio I can tell is a little harder (though honestly – it’s still tame compared to speedwork/sprints/just about anything else I do). The abs – I’m torn. I’m again less sore than I was last week but I feel like it’s being worked pretty well so I’ll call it a tie.

I am still going to call it a great little workout if all I had was a half hour from start to finish, and much better “bang for the buck” strength training than my home strength workout that I’ve been doing for over a year now, but it will not be replacing my cardio any time soon.

Week In Review:

It was an interesting week.

Monday I just shredded and curled up on the couch and died (<3 u TOM). I also ate only about 1250 calories.

Tuesday I shredded and ran a fairly fast paced 5k, and ate around 1450.

Wednesday, I shredded, did a few DDR songs, and then went on a 30 minute walk with Zliten, and ate about 1600 calories (there may have been a margarita, oopsie).

Thursday, I shredded WAY early before the vampires got my blood to test, and then ATTEMPTED a 5 mile run and my shoes died on me 3.5 miles in. I walked about 1 mile between my warmup and getting home (of course they died on the FURTHEST point of my running course away from my house), so I think it was 4.6 in all. I ate about 1500 calories.

Friday, I got revenge by buying new shoes, shredding, and then rocking the 5 miles (5.3, actually). I ate a very healthy and lo cal breakfast and lunch (and then oops, forgot to track the rest of the weekend), and then snacked and indulged in some rum at night. I had INTENDED to actually order a garden burger and/or a salad at least at the bar, but I just ended up not being hungry enough to order my own food. Until about 3am, when I put the kiebash on food and resolved to just eat an early breakfast/lunch.

Saturday, I rested. Rum + no real dinner = headache. I snacked on very healthy stuff for breakfast/lunch (gardenburger, fruit, pistachios, popcorn) and then went with the parents out to dinner. I had a filet mignon, broccoli, and a salad with just a little bit of dressing. HOWEVER, I also had a roll or two. Then – we went out for Halloween and there was beer and snackies and I partook. But a lot less stupidly than last weekend.

Sunday, I erranded. We had mexican (which was not SUPER healthy but I did ok) for lunch and then got shopping and other randomness done, so while I didn’t get a workout, I definitely didn’t sit on my ass until after dinner, which was a healthy whole wheat spaghetti, super lean ground beef and meat sauce, with green pepper, onion, and broccoli. I had some frozy pineapple for desert along with 2 pumpkin spice kisses (um, yeah…can you say LOVE)

So the verdict? I slacked over the weekend a bit sure, but I didn’t go as nuts. I got more rest than normal. I didn’t track or weigh this weekend. My high weight last week? Let’s not even go there. My second highest weight? 158.8. Yeah. My low weight of the week? 155.2. Where am I starting this week? 156.2. For that, I say yippee, as it’s the lowest Monday weight since before the wedding.

The plan going forward = lots of morning workouting due to the time change. Trying to have a pretty lean and mean calorie week. Otherwise, it should look berry, berry familiar.

Monday: shred level 2 and 30 mins DDR in the morning, 1400 or less calories.

Tuesday: 5 mile run in the morning, shred level 2 at night, 1400 or less calories.

Wednesday: shred level 3 and yoga in the morning, 1400 or less calories.

Thursday: shred and 5k in the morning, 1400 or less calories.

Friday: shred level 3 and 30 mins DDR in the morning, 1500 or less calories.

Saturday: CLEANING. 1500 or less calories.

Sunday: rest or bike adventure. 1500 or 2000 calories or less depending.

We have planned a MELLOW week after the last few of crazy parties and general revelry. I am looking forward to it. I know by Friday/Saturday I might start feeling a little lame/cabin fever-y, but I think it’s for my own good.

NaNoWriMo:

Well, this sure snuck up on me. I had decided to participate and was going to write out an outline and then life got hectic and holy geez, yesterday was November 1st! I had 1667 words to write!

So I’ve determined that this month, my house is either going to get super clean and everything on my to do list is going to get done due to procrastination, or I’m going to write an effing novel. Blogging, I can bust out 1600 words in an hour while twirling a plate with one hand and directing an orchestra with the other while the house crashes to the ground around me. Fiction writing, I need a bit more order. We had to lunch. Then errands. Then groceries. Then laundry. Then other stuff. Once I got everything else settled and felt ready to write it was almost 9pm!

However, once I was in the zone, I rocked it. I got 1677 words done, and it’s not horrible. I am torn between coming up with a plan for the novel and just letting it flow. It’s sort of a fictional adaptation of earlier parts of my life (write what you know, right?), so it’s already has a shell of a story so it’s not as if I’ve just created some random characters meandering around my head. I think I will try tonight to just continue the flow tonight and not worry about more structure until I get stuck.

That’s about it for update Monday. Send me good thoughts this week so I can rock out the rest of the week and maybe start seeing more of those lovely low 150s. Who out there is doing NaNoWriMo? Anyone shredding? What’s new and exciting in November?

Where Everything Falls Apart

By Quix

On October 26, 2009

In Uncategorized

So my big thing is no guilt. No regrets. But it’s hard not to regret and rib yourself a bit if you treated yourself so poorly over the weekend that you are feeling physically ill about it. And by “you”, I mean me. Consider yourselves my proverbial priests, while I give you a full confessional. I’ll give you a play by play of the carnage.

My first mistake was going out Friday night. I knew I had a party lined up the next night, yet I couldn’t wait. I didn’t go too crazy and I ate well (I was a good girl and ordered chipotle tacos with meat, lettuce, salsa, and that’s it, and that was the worst thing food-wise I had all day), but there was definitely whiskey involved. And I was up until almost 5am. And I skipped the DDR part of my workout. Mostly because I was sore and wanted to die, but partly because I didn’t have time – friends were already over and food was sitting on the counter after Jillian kicked my butt.

My second mistake was sleeping in Saturday, lazing around, and then having to run all over town getting things for my costume. I missed my sixth day of Shred. Six days is more than I usually do, but considering 2 of those days were only 20 min shred workouts, I still owed myself a workout. And I didn’t do it.

My third mistake was following my advice for parties – I had a very small and what I thought was filling snack before I headed out, but I guess a gardenburger wasn’t enough. I was so seriously hungry I downed an OBSCENE amount of junk food there because I was STARVING. On top of that, I could only obtain a one liter of diet soda and had to move on after that to sugared punch and soda. Ugh.

My fourth mistake was lunch on Sunday. It wasn’t that it was so unhealthy – it was just so BAD. We went to try out what we thought was a new soup and salad bar, but it ended up being more of a straight buffet, and probably the worst one in town we’ve had thus far. Everything was fatty and greasy and bleh (except that salad, that was alright- but the topping bar was pretty small).

My fifth mistake? Not making up my skipped workout on Sunday. I had convinced myself somehow that I should rest today so I didn’t tire myself out, but I think it was more about the hangover. I usually punish myself by working through hangovers but not so much yesterday.

My sixth and final nail in the coffin was dinner. Calorie-wise, I was a freaking saint. We got chinese takeout and I had wonton soup, veggie delight, and one bite of orange chicken. And about half a cup of rice. The problem is – I ended up with a gigantic portion of the wonton soup + broth and it was especially salty, so I am Bloaty McBalloonperson today.

I will say some good things about this weekend though:

1. I didn’t partake of the late night fast food runs either night. I had a few fries off Zliten’s plate Friday but that’s it.

2. I did dance my ass of for a while at the party Saturday. Plus I was shopping for 3 hours – shopping is cardio, right?

3. I made good food choices with what I had to work with Sunday. I went for non fried stuff (minus one small taste of fried fish which was honestly the best thing on the buffet :P) and loaded up on veggies and non-sauce covered protein. Chinese, I ate probably just about the lowest calorie foods on the menu and was actually pretty satisfied with what I got instead of feeling diet-punished.

However, the truth is today the scale is saying unthinkable things that I am going to throw out as a mulligan. I’ll give myself a day or 2 being healthy to detox and I should be back in business. The problem: I have just about the same weekend to face next weekend. I have high hopes going into each weekend and then it all falls apart. It’s one hundred percent my fault. While I’d love to get persnickety about people around me not being the best influences and yadda yadda yadda, I am the one making the choices. I am the one who controls my destiny.

I am the one who had to have her heart jump out of her chest practically today because of what she saw on the scale. Yeah, it was that ridiculous. Who gains seven lbs in 2 days? That would be me, people. I am really going to have to get it together if I want to accomplish project: the last effing 20 lbs.

But really, all I can do is analyze, figure out how to be better next time, and move on. So that I will. This week, I will stop letting those close to me be enablers. If I choose to go out drinking and find myself hungry because of it, fuck it. Being hungry is not the worst thing in the world. If I have the strength to run a half marathon, and the capability to come up with a training plan – I can figure this out. I’m not a dumb bunny, but I sure played one this weekend.

So, I guess here is last week by the numbers:

Monday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR 5k run (had an itch to run, so I ran instead)

Tuesday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 5k run 30 mins DDR (switched from Monday, and at lower intensity than normal because – um, sore!)

Wednesday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Level 1, 30 mins DDR yoga (was about to die from soreness so I yoga’d out)

Thursday: under 1400 1500 calories, Shred Level 1, 5 mile run 5k run (just didn’t have a 5 miler in me)

Friday: under 1500 1700 calories, Shred Level 1

Saturday: healthy eating until the Halloween party, Shred Level 1

Sunday: under 1500 calories (who knows), rest

So this week is:

Monday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR

Tuesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 2, 5 mile run

Wednesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 2, yoga

Thursday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 2, 5k run

Friday: under 1500 calories, Shred Level 2, 30 mins DDR

Saturday: under 2000 calories, Shred Level 2, yoga

Sunday: under 1500 calories, rest

So yes, pretty much a do-over of last week, and moving up to level 2 of the Shred. Since this post is already looking to be like a novel, I’ll talk more about the shred and other random stuff tomorrow.

How was your weekend? Anyone else want to pull up a chair to the confessional? If you had a saintly weekend, wanna give me some tips? 🙂

Pick Myself Up, Dust Myself Off

By Quix

On October 19, 2009

In Uncategorized

What is it about weekends? You are a perfect little saint all week, and then Friday hits and BAM! it’s on like donkey kong. It was like the sin trifecta – Staying up too late, eating and drinking too much, and not exercising come together to form the voltron of not sticking to my plan of awesome.

Thursday, there were a few drinks (but I totally budgeted for them so it barely counts). Friday, we stayed up until 5am playing Uncharted 2 and watching How I Met Your Mother season 4 and about 2am started mowing down on pistachios and jerky because I was HUNGRY (to be fair, it HAD been about 6 hours since I ate dinner so it made sense). Saturday was a WAY OVERBOARD drinking night and I think I might had tripped and fell face first into a handful or 2 of chips. Sunday, we went out to Italian and let’s just say I didn’t order the pasta with red sauce.

There were some successes this weekend though. Each choice, I actually evaluated in my head. Is it worth eating/drinking this if it might possibly negate some of the work I put in this week? Each instance, it was yes. Pistachios and jerky might have sent me a little over 1500 calories that day, but they were actually a pretty healthy snack. Saturday was a freaking blast and we found a great new hangout, and though I may have had a few chips, I turned down the 2am fast food run even though I was in the car and stayed up ’til almost sunrise again. Sunday, I hadn’t had Italian in a loooooong time and I split the meal between lunch and half of dinner. Spinach and chicken cannelloni in white sauce may not have been the best choice, but it was actually a pretty small portion. Also, I may not have formally worked out, but we spent most of the weekend shopping, so I was up and about.

So, nothing to do but move forward. No guilt, no regret. I had fun this weekend, and I’m starting the week at 157.4, which is better than last week. Onward and downward.

Today, I start the Shred. After thinking about it, I think I’m going to try and do it daily (perhaps give myself one day off per week if I need). I’m looking forward to it – I desperately need to try something different and ass kicking. I’m going to take measurements and photos tonight too since a lot of people lose inches doing that and not lbs. The full week plan is:

Monday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR

Tuesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 5k run

Wednesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 1, 30 mins DDR

Thursday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 1, 5 mile run (need to start getting used to medium distances again if I’m going to run it on Thanksgiving)

Friday: under 1500 calories, Shred Level 1

Saturday: healthy eating until the Halloween party, Shred Level 1

Sunday: under 1500 calories, rest

If shredding proves to be enough of an ass-kicking, I may omit some of the DDR, but I need to get at least 2 runs in. Saturday night is a huge Halloween party which will have lots of yummy food and drink, so I’m going to just try to eat healthy up until then and be reasonable there. I think as long as I can follow the rest of my plan this week some indulgence there won’t kill me. I’ll let you know how it’s going next Monday (I think writing the wrap up on Friday made me feel somehow DONE with the week and then the weekend kinda went off into the weeds).

Shopping:

Sooo, I am loveloveloving the boots/tights/skirt or dress look this fall. Like this. I would so steal that entire outfit, I’m a sucker for plaid. So, I went out in search of some new things to apply to the bottom half of my body (I do need to get some new cold weather tops too, but I also need to clean out my closet and see what is too big first). I picked up two really cute dresses that are office appropriate and a good handful of skirts that are the same. I’m pretty set on basic tights now and I have some fun patterned ones, but if that’s really going to be my fall/winter “look”, I’m going to need some fun colors – a red and a blue at least would provide me some non-nude/black options if patterned tights aren’t an option.

As for the boots – I have a great pair of brown ones that should last this season, but my three pairs of black boots aren’t really cutting it. One I just need to throw out as the sole is split (but they are just so damn cute I haven’t yet), one are falling apart and need some shoe glue love (and I’m not sure if that will even save them), and my third pair is totally cute and WAY comfortable, but they are lace ups and take way too long to put on in the morning. So, to that end, I ended up traipsing through a bunch of different stores and after trying on all sorts, I ended up with something like this, except mine has a fold over at the top and was only 25 bucks *grin*.

After I purge the shoe closet soon, I think I’d like to pick up a more casual black boot (unless these end up being super comfy after breaking in), and a pair of non-boot black semi-dressy shoes. Something like maybe this or this. That should probably get me through. Now on the must have cold weather list is a black super warm jacket and I think I’m pretty set. I am honestly kind of OVER shopping right now since I spent all weekend doing it and STILL have to pick up a halloween costume. And eventually pick up some cold weather running gear. It’s a hard life.

So, what’s up in your world? Starting anything new and exciting like the shred today? What is your must have clothing items this fall? What are you going to be for Halloween? Anyone want to tell me I *should* feel guilty for this weekend? Ciao, lovelies, and I’ll see you mon-ya-nah.

Oh, and the pics are some pretty scary looking costumes from Costume Shopper.

The First Week Back to Reality

By Quix

On October 16, 2009

In Uncategorized

Since I seem to be ahead on posts and this doesn’t get up on the blog until Friday, I’m just going to jot down my progress and what’s going through my head each day. Overall it’s been sort of a “detox” week. You never understand how inactivity and eating junk affects you until it’s no longer the norm. A week and a half was long enough! Here is my journey out of it…

Monday:

Did – Got up around 8:45, very bleary eyed. 30 mins DDR as planned in the morning and was too hungry to do yoga so I sank into the couch with dinner and didn’t get up instead. Bad Quix! Will make it up sometime this week. Had a very healthy day of eating (ate a promax 20g protien bar for breakfast, a homemade tuna sandwich for lunch, carrots and snap peas with hummus for a snack, chicken masala, rice,half a tortilla, and peas for dinner, and a honeycrisp apple for desert) coming in right under 1500 calories. Weighed in at 159.0.

Felt – I am feeling very bleh. I think a week and a half of no consistent exercise and not watching what gets in my cakehole has actually made me tired, almost a little depressed (I’m not my bouncy, energetic self), lethargic, and I have this little bit of nose/throat funk – had it for almost a week now but it hasn’t turned into anything. I’m sure it’s not helping that it’s *greygloomyrainy* outside. That always makes me in less than a happy mood if it lasts more than a day or 2. So I am going to ignore the way I am thinking and feeling and dive back into healthy and hope this will all pass. Looking forward to setting out for a run tomorrow, but just feel too exhausted right now to see how that will be any good.

Is this what I felt all the time before? I seriously feel like I am slogging through molasses for the last week since the day after the wedding. I feel like I am broken. Someone needs to find the circuit that shorted and replace it please. I can’t remember a time when my body has felt so… useless. Not even after the half marathon – after one day off I was up and ready to go again. At first I told myself that it was good to give myself a break before the wedding. Then, after I just felt like I needed to sleep for days and it’s just not getting any better even though I AM getting plenty of sleep. Hopefully just returning back to normal habits will right me, because this sucks. I think this part is worse than the weight gain.

Yes, this too shall pass. I just need to get through it and learn from it.

Tuesday:

Did – Got up around 8:45, just about as bleary. 5k run and weights at the gym after work. Ate another promax bar for breakfast (can’t beat 20 g protien for 200 calories even if they aren’t the tastiest), had snap peas and a plum for a snack, some leftover homemade lentil soup and a gigantic salad for lunch, a junior burger for dinner and then I realized I was WAY under my calorie range so I snacked on some raspberries, a 100 calorie bag of popcorn, some turkey pepperoni, a few rice chips, and a sugar free popsicle. Came in at just under 1400 calories. Weighed in at 156.8

Felt – Morning – still bleh. It’s still grey and dreary, I’m still in this state of nose/throat thing being icky but not bad enough to call myself sick. I feel tired but not tired enough to feel like I need rest, but tired enough to make workouts feel like WORKouts. I still suspect this is just my body rebelling after taking more time off working out than I have in years WHILE eating junk. I’m hoping that slogging through another workout or 2 and later in the week when the sun comes out, I’ll be back to my normal self.

Evening – WOW! What a difference a little sun and a great workout makes. My nose and throat feel better, my mood is back to happy, and the workout felt GREAT (even during). This is totally encouraging!

Wednesday:

Did – Got up around 8:45 slightly less begrudgingly. 30 mins DDR in the morning, yoga session at night. Ate another promax bar, a turkey sandwich for lunch, fish, brown rice and veggies (wedding present fresh fish from Alaska) for dinner, and a honeycrisp apple, snap peas, pita chips, and hummus for a snack. I did splurge on half a serving of ice cream and a special k bar for desert but I had the calories for it. I came in just over 1400 calories. Weighed in at 156.2.

Felt – It was still hard to get up this morning (I was hoping to get up a little earlier), but I think it was more because I was kinda sore from my workout and also was having weird dreams. DDR was tougher that normal, but definitely a marked improvement over Monday. My nose is still running, but my throat isn’t sore! My mood is definitely in a better place. I don’t feel like I’m about the grab the day by the huevos and storm castles, but I don’t feel like curling up into a little ball and hiding away either. I’ll take it.

Thursday:

Did – Got up around 8:35, more alert than I have all week. I could have gotten up earlier but I was having a cool dream, and when I did, I kinda sprung out of bed instead of being bleary eyed. I did a full weights session (one set max reps with the ball), and after work I made up that yoga session I missed as well as ran a 5k! I was totally workout woman today! Ate yet another promax bar (I’ll have to change it up a little next week but they’ve been great this week) for breakfast, a cut up black bean burger, some corn/bean/pepper relish, and tortillas for veggie tacos for lunch (this was SUPERB), snap peas and some jerky for a snack, and grilled chicken, taterflowers (half mashed potato half cauliflower) and veggies for dinner. I also splurged and had a few vodka drinks. I came in just under 1500 calories. I forgot to weigh in the morning, and at night after my run I weighed 156.4.

Felt – I am finally feeling emotionally like myself, and workout wise feeling close to normal – though I still have this freaking nose funk on and off. While I still don’t feel 100% strong, I’m feeling like I can get there. I’ll have to build my running up a little more next week because that seems to be doing wonders for me in terms of both mood and physical well being.

Today I’m weighing in at 154.8 (yay, under 155!) and feeling pretty darn good heading into the weekend. If there is anyone out there who’s not on the workout train or off the wagon eating-wise, just climb back on! Let me give you a proverbial hand. Get through a week and you’ll feel SO GOOD. I know I do.

The goal now is to get through the weekend as close to 1500 as possible, and next week… well, we’ll talk about it then. What have you been up to this week? Any awesome plans for the weekend to share?

Pictures from graph jam, because graph jam rocks!

What’s Next?

By Quix

On October 14, 2009

In Uncategorized

So I love me some West Wing. Besides the amazing writing, the thing I love best about the show is that they get through some freaking huge crisis and save the world and then look at each other and say “what’s next”. Because that’s so me. Getting married to the love of my life and looking pretty much smokin’ hot doing it checked off the list. What’s next? I made myself take the rest of the week off last week because a) I deserved it, b) I was exhausted, and c) I felt a little bit of a cold possibly coming on so I wanted to stave it off. I did a DDR workout one day simply because I thought it would rev up my immune system but that was it.

So Monday, I started anew at 159.0. I knew I was up a bit (and thank goodness I did my 10 day calorie reduction before Vegas, I do believe my wedding dress would have been a wee bit uncomfortable if I had not lost and then gained that much on top of it), and I told myself I would not be upset with myself if it was under 160. I wish it had been MORE under 160 but at this point, it’s all down from here. By today, I’m at 156.2. Not optimal, and still over my “oh shit” weight of 155.0, but the goal is to NEVER SEE THIS WEIGHT AGAIN.

However, I do not regret any indulgences I made. I do not regret eating a full piece of yummy cake at my wedding. I do not regret an indulgent steak and seafood dinner, bearnaise sauce and all. I don’t regret the delicious fried seafood platter I nommed Saturday night celebrating a friends birthday. I don’t regret ice cream, a slice of chocolate cake, and half a whoopie pie in one day. I don’t regret MOST of the alcohol (though I wish I could have stopped JUST SHORT of being so ill on Thursday nite/Friday morning). I just need to go back to making that the very occasional exception now instead of normal life.

So what’s next? Well, this is the plan for the near future…

-Continue 1200ish calorie weekdays/1500-2000 weekends. This week easing back into it with <1500 calorie weekdays and 1500-2000 calorie weekends. Obviously, going along with that, go back to counting calories. Eat a little more every few weeks if I’m feeling weak and play that by ear. Start gradually increasing calories each week once I start training for the half once I begin to rack up the miles. Try to make sure I’m eating at least 5 fruits and veggies, enough protein, enough good fat, and try to keep the sweet treats to a minimum per day, and certainly no sweets on days I plan to have a drink.

-I want to lose weight. Consistently. Each week, I want the low weight AND the high weight to be lower than the last weeks low and high weights, even if it is 0.2 lbs. I loathe to set any goals because it’s been a long time since I’ve regularly lost. I was starting to make good progress before the wedding so I’m pretty hopefully I can pick up where I left off and continue what I was doing. I expect the first few weeks it will go quickly since it is going to be new and shiny for my body, but after that, each week I just want to weigh LESS.

– I’ve been essentially doing the same strength training for a year plus. Sure, I have increased weights and changed up some exercises and all that, but it’s been 4x arm exercises, 4xcore exercises, and 4xleg exercises as fast as humanly possible. For a while I was getting a kick out of going up really quick in weight and rocking the 25 lb dumbbells, but I have stagnated. I don’t think I’ve gotten much stronger since I started concentrating on running more at the beginning of the year. I keep meaning to do a real strength heavy month, and then I sign up for more races.

So I’m going to try something a million other bloggers got done doing and have shown fabulous results with – the 30 day shred. I am going to do it every OTHER day since I don’t believe in doing the same thing 2 days in a row. So that’s at least 3 days a week, 4 if I want extra credit on alternating weeks. I want to see how I feel during/after it, but I’m considering doubling up sessions those days and see if I can just call it a full workout instead of adding more cardio too. I am going to put it in the Netflix queue and give it a shot (before I spend the money on it). If it sucks, I will be looking for more strength training recommendations.

-I want to try some run commuting, weather permitting – we have been grey and rainy on and off for the last month… I hate it. I want the sun back. I didn’t move to freaking Seattle. Today is better but it should come back tomorrow. Bleh. Anyhoo… I live about 3 miles away from work. We have showers here. I have no excuse not to at least try it. I figure what I’ll do is bring my bag o’ shower stuff/change of clothes the day before so I don’t have to bring anything but my key card/ID. If it sucks, well, I tried. If it’s cool – it’s an excuse to do a 6 mile run and get rid of a 5-10 minute commute each way (since I’d be working out anyway).

So here is the plan this week:

Monday: Eat under 1500 calories (easing myself into it), morning 30 mins DDR and evening yoga (missed it, will make it up later this week)

Tuesday: Eat under 1500 calories, evening 5k run and weights

Wednesday: Eat under 1500 calories, morning 30 mins DDR and evening yoga

Thursday: Eat under 1500 calories, morning weights

Friday: Eat under 1500 calories, morning 5k run

Saturday: Eat under 2000 calories, sometime 30 mins DDR (or something equivalently active).

Sunday: Eat under 1500 calories, rest.

I am trying to ease back into it a bit – hence only 2 weight sessions and ONLY 30 mins cardio per day and only reducing calories to 1500. Next week if I’m feeling froggy I might step it up and include run commuting one day, get into the shred, or find other ways to fight the fluff that has deposited itself into mah belly. So far, besides missing one session of yoga, I’m right on top of it.

What’s your plan this month? Anyone have an opinion of shredding every day for 30 days? Think I’m overdoing it? Think I could do more? I want to hear from YOU!

Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: week in review Page 3 of 4

In like a lion…

Where Everything Falls Apart

Pick Myself Up, Dust Myself Off

The First Week Back to Reality

What’s Next?

About Me

Search

Pages

Archives

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Login